Tips To Finding Super Bargains On Craigslist

Craigslist is an amazing marketplace for finding just about anything from your local community. This is a huge advantage over say eBay because you can drive up and inspect the item personally before buying it.

By diligently working Craigslist (CL), you can save lots of money on many of the items a prepper would typically buy. The items will probably be used but if they are in great shape, the money you save can go towards other purchases or investments/savings.

Although you will commonly find really great prices on CL, here are two quick tips that can get you even better prices.

Tip 1: If you routinely scan CL, you will find items people posted today that interest you. If the price seems even remotely OK, call them and take a look. If it is good, make an offer and tell them you have cash right now to close the deal and take that item off their hands. Emphasize that you are ready to do business right now. And if they don’t want your price, ask to leave your phone number and the price you are willing to pay.

While people are generally less flexible right away, many realize that someone with cash money at their place right now ready to buy may be the only offer they get on the item. It lets them exchange the item for cash and most importantly, means they don’t have to deal with other folks who are just looking, or worst don’t show up.

When we shop this way, we get an immediate acceptance of our low offer (after a bit if talking) about 20% of the time. And we get called back and close the deal at our price within 3-4 days another 10% of the time.

Tip 2: Use CL’s search function to find OLD listings, ones that have been sitting for 15 or more days. Sometimes these items sold and the person was too lazy to take the item down. But quite often, the item is still just collecting dust at home.

Contact these old listings and see if the item is still available. If it is, go see it and make an offer if it is right for you.

In this instance, you want to play up the fact that it is just sitting and they might never get another call. In other words, emphasize you are solving their problem by exchanging the item for cash. And be prepared to leave your phone number and offer.

We find that if an item is still available after a length of time, we can acquire it at a really good price 25-30% of the time.

The key to all this of course is to apply simple sales techniques – selling the seller on reasons it is in their best interest to get rid of the item right now and at your price.

If you are not comfortable with dealing with people, this could take a few practice runs before you get good at it. But with practice, you can succeed – and you can often snag savings of 30-50% off the original asking price turning a good deal into a really great deal.

Your Comments

1 comment to Tips To Finding Super Bargains On Craigslist

Just picked up my dream firearm using tip #1 (made a reasonable offer and left my number when it was rejected)…of course it wasn’t liste on Craiglist because of their hippy policies:) Look for alternative sites to craigslist when possible for those items craigslist bans.